JS Tip 509: Leadership and College Football

Next Monday evening. 

Eight o’clock (Eastern). 

The College Football National Championship: Number Two Clemson versus Number One Alabama. ’Bama is a six-point favorite.  

With all due—and proper and well-deserved—respect to Nick Saban, Paul “Bear”* Bryant started Alabama on its road to football greatness. 

He served for twenty-five years as Alabama’s head coach. He and his team won six national championships, thirteen conference championships, and three hundred and twenty-three victories.

He knew about leadership and teambuilding:   

I’m just a simple plowhand from Arkansas, but I’ve learned how to hold a team together. How to lift some men up, how to calm others down, until finally they’ve got one heartbeat, together, a team.

There’s just three things I’d ever say:

If anything goes bad, “I did it.”

If anything goes semi-good, then, “We did it.” 

If anything goes really good, then, “You did it.”

That’s all it takes to get people to win football games for you.  

And work for you. And sacrifice for you.

That’s leadership. We love this stuff. 

* Paul Bryant became “Bear” Bryant when he was eight years old and wrestled a carnival bear.